By Rob Carbon
Padraig Amond always wants to score whenever he steps onto a football pitch, but his lust for goals will carry a special intensity tonight.
Not only is the Newport County striker aiming to put his team on the road to Wembley in the first leg of their League Two play-off semi-final at home to Forest Green Rovers, but he will be performing in front of his son for the first time.
County will welcome back 900 fans to Rodney Parade for the first time this evening but, Amond will only be thinking about one of them.
The Irish striker became a father for the first time in August and since then his wife, Caoimhe, hasn’t been able to take their son, Eoghan, to watch him play.
“He hasn’t seen me play as yet. He was nine months old a few days ago and provided the weather is okay and it doesn’t get too cold he will be there,” says Amond.
“That will provide me with a bit of extra motivation and I will try hard not to let him down. It’s something I’m really looking forward to, as I know are the other four or five players who had babies around the same time.
“I haven’t scored in the last 11 games, but there are plenty of goals left in the boots.”
How good is the noise of fans at games again 😍😍
— Pádraig Amond (@padraigamond21) May 15, 2021
With only one goal in his last 28 games it has been an unusually barren season so far for Amond, who has 59 goals in 203 games for County since joining in 2017 and has been the hero on so many memorable Cup games for the club.
Even so, he is still joint top scorer with Matty Dolan on six league goals.
“Two years ago, we had two strikers getting all the goals and we were worried about where they might come from if either Jamile Matt or I didn’t score. Now we’re getting them from all over the pitch,” he says.
Amond is set to lead the County attack alongside 20-year-old Lewis Collins.
At the other end of the pitch will be Collins’ elder brother, Aaron, who will be looking to add to his 10 goals for Forest Green Rovers to date this season.
Newport reached the play-off final two years ago and lost to an extra time goal to Tranmere Rovers. Now, Amond believes they are ready to go one better.
“We got so close two years ago, but we are better equipped now than we were then to go up. We all want to lift a trophy at Wembley and to get a promotion on our cvs.
“Having fans back in the ground will be great and we all saw what a difference they made to the FA Cup Final last weekend.
“We need to use their support and noise to help us, just as we did two years ago at Mansfield in the play-off semi-final.
“Football is nothing without the fans and they will help to make it an even bigger and better occasion. We are confident going into the game, but we know they are a good side.”
Newport skipper Joss Labadie is available to face Forest Green. It was initially feared the midfielder might miss the rest of the campaign after suffering a nasty gash to his knee during the Exiles’ 1-1 draw at Southend on May 8, but he has been cleared to play.
Central defender Priestley Farquharson is also in contention having returned to training following an ankle injury which he thought might have ended his season in April.
County manager Michael Flynn fielded the same XI in the last five games of the regular season and was rewarded with three wins and two draws.
Interim Forest Green manager Jimmy Ball could have midfielder Nicky Cadden back at his disposal.
Cadden has an outside chance of making the squad after recovering from a hamstring problem which has sidelined him since April 20, but the second leg may represent a more realistic target.
However, Dan Sweeney, Elliott Whitehouse and Jamille Matt remain on the long-term casualty list.
Rovers head into the game after back-to-back victories over Tranmere and Oldham, but having lost six of the previous 10.
MATCH STATS
- Newport are yet to register a home League Two victory over Forest Green in three previous meetings (D1 L2), losing the last two, including a 2-0 defeat in February this season.
- There has never been a home win in seven previous League Two meetings between Newport and Forest Green, with the away side winning four games with three draws.
- This is Newport’s second Football League play-off campaign – they reached the final in 2018-19 in League Two, losing to Tranmere Rovers in the final.
- As with Newport, Forest Green’s only previous Football League play-off matches came in 2018-19, where they were eliminated in the League Two semi-final by Tranmere.
- The team finishing 5th in League Two – as Newport have this season – haven’t won the first leg of the play-offs semi-final in any of the last 10 seasons (D4 L6), since Rotherham United won 1-0 against Aldershot Town in 2009-10.
-
👀 Last time out!
💪 Josh Davison and Jamille Matt secured all three points at Rodney Parade back in February.#WeAreFGR 💚 pic.twitter.com/9vQnKGCGZD
— Forest Green Rovers (@FGRFC_Official) May 18, 2021
- Only three teams won more away League Two matches in 2020-21 than Forest Green Rovers (10), with all three winning automatic promotion – Bolton (12), Cambridge (12) and Cheltenham (11).
- Newport’s top League Two scorer this season was shared among three players with just six goals – Padraig Amond, Matty Dolan and Scott Twine – the latter of whom made his final appearance for the club on Boxing Day, but still had 14 more shots (68) than any other Newport player this season.
- Only Cambridge striker Paul Mullin (169) had more shots in League Two this season than Forest Green’s Aaron Collins (131), although he only found the net with 10 of those efforts (7.6%). Collins did however score in his last two League Two matches, last scoring in three in a row in May 2019 for Morecambe, with the third game in that run coming against Newport.